Pass Christian, Miss., building back up from Hurricane Katrina

Pass Christian, Miss., which Mayor Chip McDermott describes as annihilated by Hurricane Katrina, is continuing to build up its tax base and population. Four subdivisions with a total of about 240 houses are under construction and a $30 million project to almost double the harbor's size should begin in November, The Sun-Herald reported.

View full sizeMichael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune archiveThe houses on Sandy Hook Drive facing St. Louis Bay in Pass Christian are either repaired or gone. This photograph was taken Aug. 22, 2010.

"We are 10 times better than we were, but it's not going to be like it was before. You can't live like you lived before," McDermott said.

Katrina swamped parts of the city with a 32-foot tidal surge. A majority of the city's churches, schools and homes were either destroyed or uninhabitable.

"It was annihilation," the mayor said. "We were underwater from one end to the other."

New flood regulations mean buildings, including homes, must be elevated. McDermott says the city is only six square miles, with four square miles suitable for habitation because of wetlands.

The harbor project will add 240 slips.

The subdivisions all are being built because of tax incentives or other economic inducements.

He said the development is modeled after one the company completed in downtown Ocean Springs, where "we really have been able to attract the folks we set out to attract, which is folks that want to live and work in downtown Ocean Springs.

"That is what we are trying to do in Pass Christian ..." he said. "We wanted to provide a place for folks to live and work around these great things going on in the Pass."

Chartre Construction of Oxford, which builds tax-credit housing statewide, is completing 131 homes in West Pass Christian. Investors receive credit for the money they put in. Tenants can rent for 15 years to become homeowners.

Chartre also is completing 39 homes on North Street, where qualifying owners will get help with down payments.

All the subdivisions are being built under programs created to restock housing lost to Katrina.

At 4,200, the population is still 28 percent lower than it was before Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005, McDermott said.

Even so, McDermott said, some residents are complaining about all the new subdivisions and wondering where the people who live in them are going to work.

Cloyd said, "You've got to have rooftops to support the retail."

Downtown is coming back, McDermott said. Business and property owners got together to hire famed architect and planner Andres Duany, who is based in Miami.

McDermott said, "I'll never forget what he said: 'You all are closer to 1850 than you are to 1950. In 1850, they didn't go out and borrow a lot of money. They built with their own money and, when business improved, they evolved.'

"So that's what they're trying to do," he said.

Meanwhile, the Walmart Supercenter on U.S. 90 has helped Pass Christian's tax base recover. August sales taxes were $92,000, McDermott said, compared with $105,000 before the storm.

Some businesses already have opened and are planning to expand, while others will be built, McDermott said, for a total of 22 downtown businesses so far.

He said $11 million in federal funds have been spent on downtown improvements, including decorative lights, water and sewerage, curbs, gutters, sidewalks and tree wells.